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Steven Avery
Steven Allen Avery, born on July 9, 1962 in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, U.S., is the main subject of the Netflix documentary series Making a Murderer. A former car mechanic, Steven Avery has now spent over 30 years of his life in prison. In his teenage years Avery was convicted for burglary and theft. In his twenties, Avery was convicted for animal cruelty and for an attempted rape of a prominent local woman named Penny Beerntsen on Lake Michigan Beach, as well as being convicted for driving a sheriff deputy's wife off the road and pointing a loaded rifle at her. For the latter offense Avery had to serve six years in prison concurrently with the 32 years for the former offense. In 2003, 18 years after his conviction, Avery was released due to DNA evidence pointing to a different perpetrator. Following his release Avery sought between 2,000,000 to 36,000,000 dollars for his wrongful conviction through a civil lawsuit. In 2005, while still working on a case against the State, a local female photographer went missing. Her last known location was Avery’s Auto Salvage. Police investigation of Avery's area resulted in the discovery of various items of evidence. In 2007, four years after his release, Steven Avery was again convicted. Early life Steven was born in 1962 in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin to Allan and Dolores Avery. Since 1965 his family had their own business; Avery's Auto Salvage - a 40-acre property outside town where the whole family lived. Avery had three sibling: an older brother named Charles (“Chuck”), a younger sister named Barbara (“Barb”) and a younger brother named Earl. He attended public schools in nearby Mishicot and Manitowoc, where his mother said he went to an elementary school "for slower kids". According to one of his lawyers in 1985, school records showed that his IQ was 70 and that he "barely functioned in school". On 24 July 1982, roughly three weeks after turning 20, Avery married Lori Mathiesen, a single mother of son Jason. Together they had four children: Rachel, Jenny, and twins Steven and Bill. Early crimes and allegations *In March 1981, at age 18, Avery was convicted of burgling a bar with a friend. They managed to get inside through a window that Avery had previously broken and stealing two cases of beer, a tool box, change from the pool table and electronic games, and prepackaged sandwiches. Once they were inside, Avery and his friend broke open three bags of charcoal and poured them over the floor and pool table, dumped boxes of cigars on the floor, removed clocks from the wall and smashed them, and smashed numerous other items on the floor- including the cash register, bar glasses, a pizza oven, a typewriter, liquor bottles, and coffee pots. After serving 10 months of a two-year sentence in the Manitowoc County Jail, he was released on probation and ordered to pay restitution. *A few months after his release, now late 1982, at age 20, two men admitted that, at Avery's suggestion, they threw Avery's cat "in a bonfire and then watched it burn until it died", after Avery had poured gas and oil on it. Avery was found guilty of animal cruelty and was jailed until August 1983. "I was young and stupid, and hanging out with the wrong people", Avery said later, of his first two incarcerations. In Making a Murderer Avery said he himself was the one who threw to cat over the fire and caused it to catch fire. *'Starting in about 1982, at age 20, arguably until age 22,' Avery's relationship with Lori became physical and violent. The domestic abuse consisted of the punching, hitting and strangling of Lori by Avery. In the 1990's Avery admitted to the domestic violence allegations. *In 1982 or 1983 Avery allegedly raped his babysitter Jean. Jean was laying on the couch, when Avery came over and began fondling her. When Jean said "no" Avery put his hand over her mouth and told her that "if you yell or scream there will be trouble." Jean said there was sexual intercourse and that it lasted about 15~20 minutes. Jean told some family members about the incident, but didn't tell the police about it. After the Halbach murder Jean provided witness testimony about the incident to the prosecution and she said she was willing to testify against Avery at trial.Second Supplementary Memo in Support of Other Acts Evidence, page 11 *Sometime during the early 1980's Avery had knocked two teeth out of his wife's son Jason. Allegedly Avery had become aggressive towards Jason because Jason had outsmarted Avery. *Another time during the 1980's Steven Avery had kissed his daughter Jennifer several times in the neck leaving several hickeys. *On 3''' '''January 1985, at age 22, Avery ran his cousin's car off to the side of the road. After she pulled over, Avery pointed a loaded gun at her. Avery was upset that she had been spreading rumors about him masturbating on the front lawn, which he stated was not true. Avery maintained that the gun was not loaded and that he was simply trying to stop her from spreading rumors about him. He was sentenced to six years for "endangering safety while evincing a depraved mind" and possession of a firearm. Wrongful attempted rape conviction It was about 3 o' clock on Monday 29 July 1985 when a Penny Beerntsen, a prominent Manitowoc woman, got ready for her jogging session at Lake Michigan Beach. About an hour later, as Beerntsen passed a tree on the beach, a man near the tree grabbed her and pulled her into the woods where he sexually assaulted her. At the hospital Beerntsen gave a description of her assailant to Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Judy Dvorak and Sheriff Tom Kocourek that generally resembled Steven Avery, but also mismatched Avery at several key points, most notably his eyes and length. Avery was arrested after the victim identified him in a photo line-up and later a live line-up. At trial, Avery proved, using a time-stamped receipt and 16 alibi witnesses that it would be nearly impossible for him to commit the crime. The State presented a witness that testified to seeing Steven Avery leave the property much earlier than the many alibi witnesses, mostly relatives, the defense had provided. Steven was charged and ultimately convicted of rape and attempted murder, then sentenced to 32 years in prison. Life in prison 1980's In 1987, two years after the assault, Steven appealed. On 5 August of that year a higher court denied his appeal. In 1988 Steven divorced from his wife Lori. In 1993 Judge Hazlewood decided that physical contact between Avery and his children was terminated. Contact by telephone was still allowed once a week and on special occasions like birthdays.Motion to Deny or Increase Cash Bail, with exhibits 1-3, page 20 1995 - 1997: second appeal In 1995 Avery's new attorney filed a motion with the trial court seeking the release of certain evidence for DNA testing. The trial court granted Avery's motion.STATE of Wisconsin, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Steven A. AVERY, Defendant-Appellant On 23 April 1996 Avery filed a motion for postconviction relief requesting the court to vacate his conviction. The motion was based on the DNA testing results of fingernail scrapings of the victim and revealed that there was DNA found that did not belong to Steven Avery, nor to Penny Beerntsen. Later that year, on 29 July, Avery filed a supplemental motion for postconviction relief in which Avery claimed that the sheriff's department had failed to provide Avery or his defense at trial with information regarding an “alternative suspect living in Sheboygan County who matched the description of the perpetrator.” The trial court conducted a hearing on Avery's motion. An expert testified that there was DNA present in the scrapings taken from Beerntsen's fingernails that did not match DNA samples from either Avery or Beerntsen. Thus, “there was at least one additional individual present.” The trial court, however, denied the motion for a new trial thinking the DNA evidence does not raise a reasonable probability of a different result at trial. On 3 September 1997 the Supreme Court also denied the appeal. Crimes while in prison * Between 1985 and 1993 Steven Avery repeatedly sent letters addressed to his wife Lori. In some of those letters he wrote death threats. * During the same period Steven also addressed one of his letters to his children. In the letter he wrote he was going to kill their mother. Post-prison life Post-prison crimes and allegations * After his release from prison Steven met Jodi Stachowski and would later get into a relationship with her. Stachowski would later describe this relationship as physically abusive, stating she was pushed, hit, strangled and threatened with death. On one occasion Avery threatened to burn her family. A friend of Jodi, called Michelle, confirmed that Jodi had confided to her that Steven was violent with her. Another friend of Jodi called Tammy told the police she saw "a lot of bruises" on Jodi's legs and arms. Rollie Johnson once talked with Steven about hitting Jodi, telling Steven "it has to stop". * Lori stated that after his release Steven would sometimes drive by her home to check up on her. * In the summer of 2004 Tammy saw Steven grabbing the breasts of two 13 or 14 year old neighbour girls. Steven allegedly told Tammy "if you need a piece, you need a piece." * Also in the summer of 2004 Avery allegedly raped a teenage relative called Marie.Second Supplementary Memo in Support of Other Acts Evidence, page 9 Marie claimed that on one occasion Steven put his hands over her mouth and had penis to vagina intercourse in Barb's residence. Avery threatened to kill her and hurt her family if she would speak up about it. Though Avery denied he raped Marie, he did admit he had sex with her (while in a relationship with Jodi).Second Supplementary Memo in Support of Other Acts Evidence, page 10 Marie was willing to testify against Avery during his 2007 trial. Jodi was willing to testify against Avery about the alleged sexual intercourse Avery had with Marie, because according to Stachowski Avery told her he had been "fucking" Marie. * On 30 October 2005, on the evening before the murder, Bryan Dassey's ex-girlfriend called Bryan, but the call was answered by Steven. After a short chat Dassey's ex hang up. She was later called back by Steven who asked her if she would like to “come over and have a little fun” and that “we can have the bed hit the wall real hard.” She told Avery that she would not come over to his house, and that he was wasting her cell minutes, and hung up the phone. Murder of Teresa Halbach :further reading: October 31st, 2005 timeline On the morning of 31 October 2005 Steven Avery set up a photoshoot for a red van that belonged to his sister Barbara Janda. According to Steven he did so to get the photos in AutoTrader magazine and to eventually sell the vehicle, that he did not own. At the time, Avery was in possession of Halbach's phone number. However, he decided to call directly to AutoTrader instead. According to the AutoTrader receptionist Steven did not give his own name, but only left the name of his sister: B. Janda. Steven also gave Barb's phone number and address. He did not leave his own number nor his own address. After setting up the appointment Avery went to work. At about 11 o'clock Avery left his work unannounced. He probably did this to wait for Halbach's arrival, which he knows, based on past appointments, is usually early afternoon's. At about 14:30 hours Halbach arrived at Avery's and started to take photos of the red van for sale. After completing the photoshoot she was seen heading towards Steven Avery’s trailer. This is the last time she was seen by someone other than Steven Avery. References Category:People